Sony Ericsson hasn't had a great deal of luck with its premium Xperia smartphone series. The original X1 was an ill-conceived mangle of style and smartphone that didn't really succeed at doing anything very well. More recently, the hotly hyped Xperia 2 was unceremoniously pulled from UK release after Vodafone announced that it …

Sensitivity

One Xperia user speaks

I've had one of these beasts for a couple of weeks now, and other than the poor battery life, I couldn't be happier with it. Surprisingly it does most things pretty well, and provided it has a decent 3G or WiFi signal everything is a joy to use - and the screen is outstanding.

Onto "But while I tried, I couldn't get it to splice my Facebook friends info into the phone's contacts book.": you need an App for that - "FB Sync" has been brilliant, if a little time-consuming for ones that it doesn't recognise as an instant match.

I'll be interested to see what changes will come when SE finally release the 2.1 update.

hmmmm this of the HTC Desire or an Iphone?

Well upgrade time is upon me - Orange are pushing this heavily but android 1.6 is a bit lacklustre - so do i go for a HTC Desire or finally get a bit more value of out my mobile me subscription with an iphone...

Upgrade coming...

Sony have already said they'll be issuing a software update for this to either Android 2.1 or 2.2 when it comes out.

I was torn between this and the Desire for a while but have decided on the Desire as the X10 does look and feel very plasticky. A shame really, as in some ways it looks nicer than the Desire, and has a better camera too.

Desire/X10/iPhone

I must admit I haven't had much use of an X10, but Android 1.6 feels a bit childish and incomplete after a few months with 2.1 on my Galaxy Portal - and I prefer it to the iPhone, what with third party apps, plenty of [legitimate] mods, easy rooting if that's your thing, etc.

If I had waited a couple of months before renewing my contract, I'd have got a Desire like shot, if I knew what I now know.

Just FYI.

Oh, and you now have free turn by turn navigation on Google Maps on Android in the UK - I haven't gone for a drive with it yet, and it's not as feature complete as a Tom Tom, but it looks pretty funcitonal and seems to work pretty well....

Decent enough

I got this phone as a free upgrade for my wife who had a case of iphone envy. Its quite a nice phone, big though. The touch interface is rubbish though and it will register a flick up or down as a press all the time. The haptic feedback is nice when typing though.

distinguish

no...its so that they have a USP. each of the OEMs is adding some bespoke apps or GUI additions to make THEIRS the phone to get. be that a system to link in all your social networking...or to make the front page prettier or deal with video/photo/mp3 etc.

otherwise, they'd all just be clones and the only difference would be form factor and camera/memory specs.

any of them could run the vanilla Android ...but then you lose those bespoke features...and people are very keen on the HTC features.... the Sony Ericsson stuff has had quite a few rave reviews too.

Desire vs X10

It certainly seems like this and the Desire are the two main smartphone options around at the moment, at least for those of us who don't want a physical keyboard.

I have a Desire, and the guy sat next to me has an X10, so we're in a handy position to be able to compare. Each of us thinks we made the right choice, so there's obviously nothing massively wrong with either handset.

The Desire has a more up to date Android version, multi-touch and a more sensitive screen. The X10 has a better camera and a slightly bigger screen. They're also very different looking devices, so it's well worth seeing them both in the flesh before you make a decision. The Desire is a really nice looking phone in the flesh, the pictures don't do it justice. The X10 is slightly bulkier, but its more angular shape will appeal more to some people. It looks a bit plasticky to me though.

One thing's for sure - Android phones have finally come of age, and both of these handsets are beautiful bits of kit!

photo light

Round of applause for the reviewer, for making the vital distinction between a flash and a photo light - different beasts with different pros and cons. Hopefully this will be the start of an illuminating new era for The Reg...

Battery Life a Real Issue

I've had the X10 for about 3 weeks now and I have to say that the battery life is a real issue. Prior to the X10, I had a first generation iPhone (the one with the sexy aluminium back). I can say that for a 2-year old phone, the iPhone's battery still far surpasses the X10's.

I'm pretty sure it's not the processor or Timescape that sucks battery life. I believe it is the wireless connections - both Wi-Fi and HSDPA. After being stuck in the US for the last 5 days due to the volcanic ash floating about, my X10 battery has lasted significantly longer every day, with data roaming turned off, than it ever did in the UK. I've been using the phone quite a lot for calls, texts and playing the odd game, so it's not exactly sitting idle. However, in the hotel, when I activate Wi-Fi and connect, the battery indicator almost visibly shrinks.

The keyboard input is also inferior to the iPhone's, but there are some rectifications for that, such as manually installing an HTC keyboard layout.

The browser response is much quicker than Safari on my First Gen iPhone.

Overall, great phone, extremely poor battery life.

As an aside, I moved from O2 to T-Mobile with my purchase of the X10. I have to say that I found T-Mobile's network inferior to O2 as well. Standing in my kitchen, never did I have a network issue with O2. With T-Mobile, it's a 50/50 chance as to whether coverage will drop. 3G connectivity also poor from T-Mobile, even though their website says both my home and office are in strong connectivity areas.

Camera is awesome as my mate has an X10...

Sent mine back

I had an X10, but sent it back to get the Desire. Although it is still a nice phone with a very nice screen I'm supprised the review didn't mention the sound level. Everything on it is really quiet, the ring volume needs to be on maximum, and it's still not that loud, and the headphone sound level is very low even with some high end headphones.

The lack of multitouch would be ok if it had a trackball or similar, or more buttons, but ending up trying to hit small icons on the high res screen is very hit and miss.

I also had a problem with needing to turn the wifi on and off all the time, as I moved between different networks.

It's not a bad phone, but I don't know why they left some simple but important features out.

Not sure yet

I have had mine for a week now and honestly I'm still not sure.

Wanted to try Android and have a decent camera so options were narrowed down quite a bit. Generally I like it but agree with some that the touch screen ocassionally behaves... not as desired. Other than that I'm loving the screen though.

For those wandering where the battery goes there is a useful battery use breakdown in the settings. Personally I have found I need to charge it every night after heavy use but it just about makes it through the day.

Problem is all the phones I have looked at recently fall short of what I want. I reckon my old nokia n95 8gb is still my favourite - had music, satnav, camera and battery life (other than under heavy camera use) all great as far as I was concerned. Just missing a decent ability to browse. Oh well.

X10, Desire or HD2

I am in the fortunate position of been able to choose between the 3 phones as my next company phone. I have been using all 3 for the last few weeks.

The Desire overall for me is the better phone. The screen and sense interface are to good to ignore in any comparison and as this is the part of the phone you use the most it has become the deciding factor. This is not to say the X10 is a bad phone, in fact I really enjoyed using it and I would be very happy if it was my only choice, The Desire is just that bit more polished.

The other aspect of the Desire is the housing, it is just a lovely piece of kit to hold, use and look at, especially that incredible screen. The bit that amazes me the most is that just over a year ago I got a G1 which has been a brilliant little device and after this short time things have progressed this far.

Even T-mobile who had very little coverage at my office have recently managed to give me 5 bars possibly due to merging sites with 3. This has been great fun as there is an inevitable battle with the Iphone users, who seem to be obsessed with trying to prove that their device is better than absolutley everything in the cosmos, including women (something I find difficult to understand as most of them have very little experience of the latter, though apparently there is an app for that).

Battery

X10i

And yes the battery is bad, but after turing off the 3g signal and the data for mms and data service. it does last longer. also does not eat into my Unlimited 750mb limit data from orange LOL.

The sound is way to low in all calls etc and i mean low.

The screen is great, but does need a few taps sometimes.

I do miss pinch to zoom, coming from the iPhone 3gs i was used to it for web pages etc.

Must say the web does look better thanks to the higher screen res.

I have copilot installed, locked up twice but apart from that works better than iPhone version due to the simple fact as soon as you start to move again you have the correct marker again.

Found it works well with my unlocked E5830 mifi so thats ok. oddly I get a better signal in shops using the x10 with mifi on orange than I do with the x10 on orange via the 3g on the phone with data turned back on etc.

Only thing that really lets it down is lack of killer games like iPhone has. so do miss that side of things.

I just can't forgive...

...the debacle that was the X1.

Ok. The phone was not a total dogs dinner. But it was pretty dammed close.

My phone suffered every one of the well document faults from the cracking case to the keyboard registering no / multiple character inputs and the battery deciding to have an off day and go nuclear and yet I am going to be stuck with it for at least another 6 months (as I was fool enough to let Vodafone talk me into a 2 year contract).

SE could have salvaged some of their reputation with me but they didn't. The attitude is, from my perspective, adieus sucker see you when you are due your next upgrade.

I want to like the X10 but I no longer trust SE. What if the X10 also has 'issues'? Will SE again shrug their corporate shoulders and offer innumerable repairs but duck out of any semblance of providing what was purchased.

In my opinion SE got off pretty lightly with the X1 (albeit it buggered them up with a UK release of the X2).

Just remember folks, if the X10 turns out to be another dogs dinner then you are dining on your own. SE won't even have the good grace to provide the condiments...